Norbar Rises to Challenge to Create New Products Faster
As the first company in Britain to commercially manufacture a torque wrench, Norbar Torque Tools has maintained its global reputation for quality and robustness for more than seven decades. But with technology and the Internet in particular driving the demand for immediacy, the world has changed.
“Customer expectations are much higher than they were even five years ago,” managing director Neill Brodey says. “It is essential that our new product development programs move at the same pace.”
Achieving new, high-quality products at a fast pace requires a streamlined process that eliminates waste.
Waste in the design process can come from many places. For example, Nobar designs parts—torque wrenches, screwdrivers, multipliers and calibration equipment—that often contain legacy data. Needing to understand legacy data in order to manipulate the model inhibits the engineer from designing.
Since adopting Siemens NX and Teamcenter, Norbar has seen design times cut in half. NX Synchronous Modeling makes it possible for engineers to completely change a model without understanding the legacy data behind it or how the model was originally built.
The user-friendliness has made a difference too. “We love the design freedom [NX] gives us. The designers are able to focus on the design and not the CAD system,” says engineering manager Richard Radini.
“At Norbar, we are on a journey to be the best torque tool company in the world, and that means producing high-quality tools efficiently and developing new products at a fast pace,” Brodey says “We are decidedly moving forward with the help of Siemens PLM Software.”
